March 16 is the sixteenth anniversary of the death of Beth Brett, my sister, and mother to Pippa. On the eighth anniversary of her death, Pippa (who lives in...

On the cold, dark days of winter, with snow and ice on the ground, I achieve my daily 10,000 Fitbit steps by jogging (slowly) in front of the TV. For a while...

I’m always intrigued by those films that are “inspired by” or “based on” true events. As a writer who likes to use my own life as a jumping off point for my...

Thanksgiving is a time when families, for better or worse, come together. This holiday prompted me to consider how important families are in the stories we w...

For those of you who missed my book launch at Porter Square Books on October 2, 2018, I present below the text of my presentation. In general, I am not a goo...

After writing the first draft of Gina in the Floating World, I searched for other novels set in Japan with a young, female, and gaijin (foreign) protagonist....

(Image from Amazon.com) It may feel like an arbitrary year, but I chose 1981 quite intentionally as the year in which Gina in the Floating World takes place....

Cheryl Suchors, author of the inspiring memoir of adventure and persistence--48 Peaks: Hiking and Healing in the White Mountains (She Writes Press, September...

Writing is all about revision, and Gina in the Floating World is no exception. I have shredded and re-crafted it numerous times. Although my official records...